The Last Five Years
★★★★☆ Bittersweet
Paradise in Augustines (Venue 152): Sat 3 – Sat 17 Aug (not 11)
Review by Rebecca Mahar
New Edinburgh-based Never Ending Theatre brings a poignant rendition of Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years to Paradise in Augustines, which is pacy and arresting from start to finish.
Based on the decline and fall of Brown’s own marriage, The Last Five Years follows the turbulent relationship of Jamie, an author finding meteoric success, and Cathy, an actress working to find her way in a cutthroat industry.
Sarah-Louise Donnelly as Cathy in rehearsal. Pic NEt
Each character relates their version of the story along parallel lines: at the opening of the show, Cathy laments the breakdown of their marriage, while we see Jamie at its inception. The pair travel in opposite chronologies, speaking and singing to invisible versions of each other, physically meeting only once in the middle: on their wedding day.
Sarah-Louise Donnelly is marvellous as Cathy, skilfully navigating the difficulties of both Brown’s score and her character’s struggle to be true to herself and her aspirations while supporting a husband whose career has eclipsed her own.
Meanwhile, Ciaran Walshe’s Jamie is fantastically self-centred, both self-aware as he sings “My heart’s been stolen, my ego’s swollen” at the start of both his authorial success and relationship with Cathy, and narcissistically oblivious to the damage he does to her.
powerhouse vocal performances
Both Walsh and Donnelly deliver powerhouse vocal performances. Unfortunately, in the intimate Sanctuary at Augustines they are over amplified. Microphones that could do with the addition of windscreens pick up every breath and shuffle, and turn the performers’ clean belting into eardrum-threatening shouts.
Ciaran Walshe as Jamie in rehearsal. Pic NEt
Minus a few difficulties with the muting and unmuting of microphones, and Walshe’s tendency to just miss his stage right spotlight, the technical aspects of the show came off without a hitch. Grainne Walsh’s set design makes clever use of neutral-coloured actor blocks moved around the stage by the actors to represent the show’s various locales, with props hidden inside.
Direction by Aoife Summers (who will also step into the role of Cathy on 10 Aug) almost always places the invisible Jamie and Cathy directly in the audience, bringing the audience vividly into the physical Cathy and Jamie’s worlds. Under the musical direction of Josh Wood, the onstage band executes Brown’s score brilliantly in concert with Donnelly and Walshe.
The Last Five Years shows a relationship full of flaws, negotiations, highs and lows; in other words, something real and human. Never Ending Theatre’s interpretation is energetic, honest, and worth adding to your morning viewing calendar this Fringe.
Running time: One hour and thirty minutes
Venue: Paradise in Augustines (Sanctuary), 41 George IC Bridge EH1 1EL (Venue 152)
Sat 3 – Sat 17 (not 11) August 2024
Time: 10:30am (6-10th), 12:10pm (12-17th)
Tickets and details: Book here.
Instagram: @neverendingtheatre
Facebook: @neverendingtheatre
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/neverendingtheatre
ENDS
